Full vs. Incremental vs. Differential; Some Questions

Hello!

I need to know something regarding the logic that ATI uses with regards to full backups, and Incrementals / Differentials.

First, some background on my backup strategy:

Currently, I have automated only the backups of my C partition. I have numerous other partitions, but due to the amount of space (approaching a terabyte) plus the low rate of updates, I have decided to not back them up with an automatic task.

I currently back up the C partition with a FULL image once per month. Subsequently, once per week, I take an Incremental image.

In addition to the backups, I also take a FULL "System State" image once per week and a Differential "System State" image once per day on all the other days.

On occasion, I take an extra "stand alone" backup, to be kept for a few weeks or a few months. Like if I'm going to upgrade a major application. The special backup would usually be either a "FULL" image and possibly a second one of the System State, and would be a manual backup of my C partition and one of my application partitions. I would usually name the TIB file something descriptive; for example:

"C and D partition Full Image - pre-Office 2007 Upgrade.TIB"
..or..
"C and K partition Full System State - post Open Office Re install.TIB"

My question: When I take my "special" image (prior to installing or upgrading a major application), could I be causing the "update" flag for various files to be reset, therefore inadvertently interfering with the accuracy of my normally-scheduled incremental or differential images of my C partition?

If so, then I think I would need to run my normally-scheduled full image tasks right after I take my "special" backups; or at least before my next regularly-scheduled Incremental / Differential backup.

Okay, that was a really convoluted way to ask a simple question. Sorry! But your advice is appreciated; thanks in advance!

Additional Info: This probably won't affect the answer, but I use Acronis True Image 11, Build 8,053.

 

Hello Karma,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

The question is unclear, I may recommend you to use our Live Chat service here in order to receive the answer.

Thank you.

--

Oleg Lee

 

If I read this right –
AFAIK, when you do an INC or DIF the only things taken into consideration are the FULL on which they are based, any previous INCs based on that FULL and the current state of the disk/data.
Any other backups NOT based on that FULL mean nothing.

 

Hello All,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

Incremental backup saves the changes since full backup or last incremental backup from the set. Differential backup saves changes since last full backup.

See the link below to read more about incremental and differential backups
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/support/kb/?aid=469

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev